USS Daystrom Alpha mission
by TEAOS
Summary: Join the crew of the Akira class USS Daystrom on their first mission. Federation civilians are going missing along the Tholian boarder and the Federation wont sit by and see their people suffer. But with a Tholian XO this mission will be far from simple.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Startrek and all related media are property of Paramount pictures. We hold no rights over it and are making no money out of this.

AN: This is a story written by several member of a startrek forum in a group effort, the authors are: Rochey, Mikey, Teaos, Thorin, Blackstar, Metalhead, Granitehewer, Darkomen, Reliant, Monroe, Shran, Millensky.

If you'd like to check out our forum and meet the authors and join in some trek debates join us at /forum

In one of the conference rooms over looking the docking bay of the Spacedock class starbase the senior officers and select personal of the USS Daystrom stood waiting for the arrival of the captain

In one of the conference rooms over looking the docking bay of the Spacedock class starbase the senior officers and select personal of the USS Daystrom stood waiting for the arrival of the captain.

The room was simple yet tidy in typical Starfleet style. An Oval shaped table with over a dozen high backed chairs surrounding it, all of which were empty at the time as the crew was still waiting upon the arrival of the captain.

Standing off to one side of the door the strangest member of the crew stood alone. Shuffling around slightly on his six legs due to his unfamiliarity with wearing a Starfleet made environmental suit the Tholian Andyeskovene Rocheineskina, who's only words to the rest of the crew so far had been to tell them to call him "Rochey" was eyeing up the crew that he was to serve with for the foreseeable future as part of the officer exchange program. His attention more often than not would rest upon the small group of officers standing by the table.

Standing at rigid attention despite the numerous times he had been told to be at ease one of the only non senior officer present was liberated Borg drone and now tactical team member and fighter wing commander Jack 'MetalHead' Ryson. He was in the company of Chief of Security Deepcrush Culley, Federation ambassador Alexis 'Cardinal' Harrison and Chief Tactical officer Jonathan Hewer. The team who mostly comprised the tactical and battle ready members of the senior crew was currently speculating on their mission. Most thoughts were on a mission in Tholian space due to their proximity and their newest officer.

Standing by the windows over looking their new ship was Chief Science Officer Teaos Whitshire, Chief Medical Officer Doctor Sarin Taal who had been given the name Omen during the war since he was usually the bearer of bad news, Chief Engineer Nicholas E Seafort, Chief of Operations M'karn 'Mikey' W'trisk and Helmsmen Blackstar. They were currently going over the capabilities of their new ship the Akira class version 3. With bio-neural computer pack several quantum torpedo tubes and several systems upgrades it was a step up from the ships that had fought in the war.

The doors to the conference room slid open and in walked Captain Fletcher. His first solo command he was a military man through and through, due to his performance as a peace keeper post war he had finally been given his own command and ship. Now all he had to do was break in his crew and ship.

Everyone took seats around the table apart from the non humanoids who stood at spaces around the table.

"Alright people this is our first mission together in what should hopefully be a long and distinguished service for the Daystrom. We are joined by Andyeskovene Rocheineskina who has been granted the rank of commander and role of second in command. I expect you do offer him all the respect and courtesy you would a normal Starfleet officer." He handed around a pile of PADDs for everyone to take with the mission brief on it.

"As you can see from the mission brief we are on a search and recover mission. Seven civilian and cargo ships have gone missing in this area of space 'he points to the local map up on the far wall' over the last five months. As this whole area is part of the Tholian defence grid it has frequent patrols and high sensors saturation. No Starfleet vessel has gone missing but they have not encountered anything to explain the disappearances either." The captain got out of his chair to walk around to the map on the far wall.

Pointing to the red line marking the boarder between Tholian and Federation space, he spoke, "As you can see we are stationed at the primary base of operations for Madox defence line, we are currently on Starbase T-12 the primary staging post for Madox defence group. The line consists of sixteen other smaller starbases along the line set up with sensors and limited docking and repair services. The starship contingent currently stands at forty three ships ranging from militarized vessels like our to standard Starfleet explorers." A number or dots appeared on the map as he pressed several buttons to show the current location of the starships and bases.

"I expect all of you to be up to speed on all this by the time we launch in seventy two hours. The Intrepid class USS-Freemen is working the same mission with us but they are stationed out of T-4 and will be working a different area from us. We will be in communication with them and the Madox defence group should we need it." Standing behind his chair he looked around at his new crew.

"This will be our first mission together, I know none of us have ever worked together before but I hope that we can turn the Daystrom into not just a ship but our home." Turning around he picked up his own PADD and walked to the door.

"Dismissed," he said as the doors closed behind him.

Commander Teaos stood up with most of the other members of the Senior crew. Looking over to Seafort to his left and Mikey next to him he noticed they both appeared to be about to leave.

"You guys want to go check out our new ship?" Teaos asked as he placed his PADD with the mission details under his arm. The other senior officers nodded in affirmative and the three made there way to the turbo lift following several other members of the crew who were apparently headed to the ship also.

Getting off at the loading bay they saw numerous station personal moving replicator stock and weapons supply around ready to load into theirs and other ships currently stationed at the base.

Standing on the short range pad to pad transporter along with several other members of the crew and some station staff they were beamed directly into one of the cargo bays.

Walking out of the Cargo bay the group split up. Several heading to the bridge some crew members obviously working on getting the ship ready and Teaos and his companions headed to Engineering.

Walking through the sliding doors into engineering they saw dozens of people running around. A few Daystrom crew members already at work check the systems and several maintenance crews working to make sure the ship was ready for launch. Just as the stepped up to the warp core the whole ship gave a little shudder as the warp core powered up giving off the standard blue glow.

"Well that should come in handy," Teaos said as one of the crew members handed Seafort a status report.

"Personal log; Chief of Operations Lieutenant W'trisk  
After a week on Andoria and a slow trip back to the Alpha Quadrant, almost ready to get underway. Interestingly, I believe I will actually miss the Stilwell - she was a good little torpedo boat, and a fine post. Despite what Father says, however, I AM a true Andorian, and no such feelings will corrupt my dedication to this ship and her crew. In fact, some of the tricks we came up with on the New Orleans-class may come in handy on this monster.

Grandfather was better - he said I made the clan proud with a senior staff post like this, and gave to me as a keepsake Great-Great-Grandfather's Andorian Imperial Guard service pistol. It looks its age, but the clan has taken excellent care of it, and it fires as true as the day it was issued. These humans would have a time trying to find the 'stun' setting - ha! I had time to pack that, my childhood ushaan-tor, and a couple of cases of Clan Barr'li ale - the humans seem to like it, although I expect the Crystal Commander wouldn't want me to distribute too much of it.

I feel like my antennae just picked up a tropical storm - I am going to have to feel my way to balance engendering loyalty and demanding respect, as well as learning to give the same to a whole new group of superior officers.

Well, I believe I'll see if this replicator can make a decent dish of redbat, and check out my bridge station - if there's a SEAT, I think I'll put my boot through a bulkhead. Then, maybe I can trade a couple bottles to Seafort for a sensor engineer to help with those mods to the ops arrays which I had in mind for this particular mission...

End Log."

Doctor 'Omen' Sarin paused briefly to look at the medical diagnostic display poised above the operating tables in the Daystrom's medical ward. It was smaller than the one on the Galaxy, but it had been refit with all of the latest technology pioneered by the newer Starfleet vessels.

"Nurse, have all of the medical supplies been brought on board?"

"Yes Doctor. The crews finished approximately a half hour ago," replied the nurse, a Vulcan.

"Did the crews double check the manifest? The commander on Starbase T-12 in charge of supply transfer has been known to... forget to check his exports," Omen replied his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I... I will have them check again," the Vulcan replied, obviously baffled.

Omen left it at that, and turned back to the diagnostic display; something caught his eye.

"Computer, activate the EMH..."

A balding, middle aged man wearing Starfleet blues materialized in the middle of the room. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency."

"Hmm... How pleasant," mumbled Omen.

The door swished open and Chief Engineer Nick Seafort strode through the door.

"How may help you Lieutenant?" The Doctor asked jovially.

"Oh... I just have to do a final check on one of the ODN relays in sick bay," he replied wearily, obviously beginning to feel the strain of all the work for the preparation of the Daystrom's launch.

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency," the EMH droned on in the background.

"Saying hi to your photonic friend?"

"Mmhm... Yes. I heard from the reports from the logs of the USS Voyager, they managed to make their EMH a very valuable part of the crew. I plan on making it... him... my personal project," said the doctor with a sly grin on his face.

Alexis 'Cardinal' Harrison, was a torn man; his two oaths (one of which oft repeated... and one; entirely unspeakable in polite circles, or in fact, any circle) were as mutually inclusive as lava and glaciers and pulled him in polar directions, like being chained and thus torn, between two belligerent stallions.

Janus, the roman, twin-faced Deity, was all too true; even in this seemingly secular universe.

With his gunboat diplomacy in hastily recruiting new confederates for the cause against the Dominion, he had earned quite a reputation as a mediator, but being quasi-famous for his oratory and brinksmanship, in a galaxy of countless billions, nay, trillions, for his other allegiance, this was as much a blessing as a curse; this shadowy oath, was the one that caused him to awake roiling in seas of rashes and sweaty palpitations; yet also comforted him.

Smoke and mirrors, he thought.

Commander Teaos was checking out his lab onboard the Daystrom with one of his junior crewmen. The Akira class being a far more militarized class of ship than most Starfleet designs, the science facilities on board was rather limited. It consisted of a single lab of modest size which also doubled as Teaos' office; his quarters at his request were right next door as well. This meant that he had slightly smaller quarters than someone of his rank was entitled to but he preferred being close at hand.

He only had nine crewmen under him and two of them doubled as sensor operators. Another was a young ensign on her first mission for Starfleet.

"Ensign Sternson, how do things look to you?" Teaos asked as he made his way over to her as she was running a diagnostic on their equipment.

"Small," she said with a snort, "Not exactly the astrophysics lab back at Starfleet academy is it, sir?"

"You'll find working with less than top of the line equipment tends to make you a better scientist not a worse one. Originally I asked for a posting on a Nova in some backwater research facility but with my lack of family they thought I'd be better suited out here," he said as he took in the room that would for all intents and purposes be his home for the foreseeable future.

There were two work stations on one side of the room with Teaos' office directly behind them behind a glass wall. On the back wall was a massive scene for display and analysis of data, it was meant to be a more compact version of an astrometrics projection. On the far side was a series of scanners on containment units for anything they may need to study.

"Well Ensign we'll just have to make do," he said as he headed for the bridge to check out the equipment up there.

"Seafort!" blustered the bright blue Mikey as he walked into main engineering, "we haven't been introduced properly. I am M'karn W'trisk, of clan Trisk, but everyone has called me 'Mikey' since I was at the Academy."

"Pleased to meet you," replied the chief engineer.

"Excellent. Now, I have a proposition for you."

Seafort eyed the Andorian dubiously, but said nothing as Mikey handed him a PADD.

Mikey continued, "I need an engineer with sensor systems experience - hopefully the chief engineer, hmmm? - to assist me in achieving THOSE sensor functions at the ops station."

Seafort glanced at the PADD, and said after a moment, "These should be no problem at all, but why? If you can't see where something is, why would you want to guess at its existence and then see where it was?"

"A trick from my last post, a New Orleans-class. When we had incoming Orions or pirates, we projected from these types of sensor functions and had three torps - one starboard, one port, one forward - all detonating about twenty five kilometres away from the bogey AS they dropped from warp. Nine times out of ten, we were able to apprehend and recover without too much more effort. I thought I could use these somewhat differently on this particular mission..."

"Whatever you say," shrugged Seafort. "I'll see who may be available, and when."

"Seafort," husked Mikey, "I would prefer the... ahem... most capable engineer to assist me in this. It may be more important than you think." Mikey smiled, and relaxed his tone. "And, if you were able to have it done by about 2030 hours tonight, there might be the prospect of being rewarded with my humble musical talents on the flabbjellah, plus a fifty percent stake in a bottle of REAL Andorian ale..."

As Mikey left engineering, he decided to head for sick bay. "Now," he said to himself, "what will it take to convince THIS doctor that you can't give an Andorian a hypospray..."

"Personal Log; Chief Tactical Officer Lieutenant Hewer  
I have just met the rest of my crew, a pretty varied bunch with a nasty looking second-in-command, a Tholian. I've never met Captain Fletcher before, of course, but I had heard of him. The guys at the Academy were always raving about captains and commanders, whose ship they'd love to serve on. Fletcher's name came up a few times and probably not least because of his involvement with the Dominion War. Hell - the rumour was that if he'd have been in charge then we'd have won in half the time with half the losses. Still, beaurocrats and all that, commanding from their desks. I look forward to working with him, and the rest, though I will miss my old crew. Onwards and upwards, I say.

The Daystrom just underwent a large overhaul. I managed to blab my way into an Admiral's office and get to oversee the tactical upgrades. Nothing quite like getting to upgrade your very own ship, I'll tell you. It's a real engineer's dream, though I daresay even better for a tactical officer, there's not a ship in the fleet like the Akira. A real powerhouse filled with torpedoes. I've not even engaged it in a proper battle yet - of course I've hit some asteroids with photons and quantums, and fired a phaser burst or two at some pirate ships, but nothing worthy of note. I look forward to getting a chance to get some quantum torpedoes and shove them down some Borg throat! That reminds me, there's a liberated drone in the crew. I must watch what I say from now on!

I've still not got use to my rank. I'm the commanding officer of fifty five crewmembers! Relief officers, shift officers, tactical system engineers, tactical sensor analysis officers... I've even got a Betazed to see if there are any cloaked ships around! At least that's what I'll be using him for, ha-ha. Then there's our sister department, security, and that's an even bigger one than ours!

Anyway I'm getting hungry now; I've been poring over these system diagnostic reports for over an hour. Got to make sure our Captain's first impressions are good ones. I'm off to visit the new Security Chief soon so that we can discuss all the new arrangements for both our departments and coordinate our efforts with each other. Hmmm, think I'm in a bit of a steak and kidney pie mood...

End Log."


	2. Chapter 2

"Personal Log; Ambassador Alexis 'Cardinal' Harrison  
I'm saw a floating leaf, today, and its carrying a bloated spider, these spiders, have a large enough web of their own, without having to impinge on others, Robert the Bruce may have absent mindedly tormented a spider and grown staunch from it, but I intend to ameliorate the situation and ensure that...

End Log."

"Chief Engineer's Log, Stardate 57737.1  
I've only been aboard this ship twelve hours and I'm already running out of time to get her up and ready for Sunday's launch. T-12's engineers seem to have done a fine job with the refit but, as always, there're bugs to work out. Sickbay's ODN lines were giving grief, and that glorified light show they call a doctor was stuck in a loop. Then that Andorian at Ops wanted the sensors messing with. What does he think I am, a Q? There's enough to be done without taking time out for his pet projects. I'll give Ensign McKenzie the job - fresh out of the Academy but he specialised in sensor operations.

At least the main engines are sound. After five years on a Batch 1 Galaxy it'll be a pleasant change to be able to leave routine core ops to the computer without risking the thing blowing up in everyone's face. This Akira may not have the raw power of the Olympiad, but at least it's stable.

There've been a few problems with the main phaser banks - power's a bit wobbly during the charging sequence. I need to speak to Jon Hewer about that, see if we can stabilise it.

End Log."

"Chief of Security's log, Stardate 57737.2  
I met our Command crew today, seems like a sound lot. A larger then normal number of combat person aboard, though I think one should thank the Dominion for such. After our first senior staff meeting I removed myself to meet the rest of my security staff. Starfleet has seen fit to give me a fair size force for such a small ship. Sixty four tactical troops, thirty two security staff, and another ten or so crewmen in various roles, including a Master at Arms. Such a position should have fallen to a higher rank and I have four times over turned such down. This must be a punishment for stepping back on rank. For the most part I find the crew fit and ready, though be it, young. Some of my troops don't even have to shave yet but once a week still. They look a bit frail in some spots, still a bit slow to make it on the bounce when called. But I'll break that of them. I'll turn these puppies into beasts soon enough. My Master at Arms is running the ships armoury. He's an old warhorse that dates back forty years in the service; I have served with him before and am proud to do so again.

All in all, so far it's been an easy start. I plan to begin running combat drills with my troops in the next few days once they get seated a bit more.

End Log."

"Thank you - what was it? - McKenzie. You certainly know your stuff, and don't worry - you'll have tricks better than mine once you've been in space for 8 years. I'll be glad to tell Seafort what a great help you've been."

Dismissing the young Ensign, Mikey made his way down to engineering once again. He was disappointed, not that Seafort couldn't do the job personally, but that he seemed to have muffed an overture toward the Chief Engineer. Why did these pinkies have to be so sensitive?

"Seafort - I don't mean to intrude; I just wanted to say thanks, and mention how helpful Ensign McKenzie has been. I'm afraid you might have mistaken my tone before. As my grandfather used to say, 'If you need your ship to work, better be friends with the man who MAKES it work.' This is for you - and I'd be happy to spill it with you anytime." With that, Mikey hands the engineer a newly laid-down bottle of Andorian ale (or as the Andorians call it, 'ale') and excuses himself.

After a quick trip to the Lieutenant Hewer's quarters, Mikey's beep for entry was met with a tired, "Yes? Come in."

"We haven't been introduced properly. I am M'karn W'trisk, of clan Trisk, but everyone has called me 'Mikey' since I was at the Academy. I wanted to meet you - I understand you've overseen the refit of the Daystrom, and are the man with his finger on the button. I shared that station on my previous assignment, although the Stilwell was nothing like your girl here. I also wanted to bring you this –" whereupon Mikey hands the lieutenant a second narrow bottle of deep blue ale - "as my grandfather says, 'If you need your ship to stay in one piece, make friends with the man who defends her.' If you get a chance, I'd love to talk with you about the systems upgrades here, gunning torpedo boats... Maybe even give you a chance to hear my flabbjellah. Pleasure to meet you, Hewer."

Mikey heads for the turbolift again, directs it to sickbay - then changes his mind, and heads for the bridge...

"Chief Helmsman's log, Stardate 57737.2  
Today was my first day on the Daystrom. I've only been at an Akira's helm in the holodecks before but I'm sure I could land this thing on the ground if I had to, assuming we aren't too heavily damaged. Since we haven't left Spacedock yet I haven't done much other then run a diagnostic, and install my taur-form seat at the helm. All systems read operating within parameters, but I'm looking into possible ways to install a joystick control system. I'm looking into what I can do myself. Engineering is busy enough with working out the bugs from the refit without me asking them to help me with personal projects.

I'm looking forward to testing this ship in combat, which I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of. I just hope she holds up to my moves. I've been noted for pushing ships to their limits, but I've yet to destroy a ship, from my manoeuvres at least.

End log."

Commander Teaos was currently sitting in one of the civilian entertainment lounges on the station with a few of his crew, including the young ensign who was his only other officer in his department and a few of his enlisted crew. Most were civilian who had decided they wanted access to Starfleet's resources and travel opportunities. With only a crash coarse at a Starfleet training facility to get them up to speed on Starfleet procedures they were pretty raw, which was exactly how Teaos liked it.

He always considered himself a scientist first and an officer second, hell if it wasn't for the fact he had want to command his own Nova one day he wouldn't have even bothered becoming an officer. One thing anyone under his command learned quick was he was rather blasé about procedure. So long as the work got done he didn't really care how.

Knocking back what ever it was he was drinking… something green, Teaos leaned forward as one of his crew was talking about her work on slipstream theory… this is why he became a scientist.

Emerging onto the bridge, Mikey paced slowly around the room, then to his station at ops. He could get a feel for the area, now, with the warp core running. Closing his eyes, he did feel the room - very literally. Through his antennae, he felt the minute variations in AG from one part of the room to the other; the vibrations of the power conduits in the walls; the barely-there static charge from the LCARS consoles - and one other thing.

"Icy hells! Why do they keep their ships so damn warm?"

Well, this was his place, now. As a Starfleet officer and as a member of clan Trisk, Mikey knew that this room was now the most likely place he would either kill or die. He grinned a small one-sided grin, thinking that in this ship, it would probably be the former.

He looked at the PADD he carried containing a duplicate copy of the flight deck duty roster. He added a note – "My staff is happy to assist with any tactical-craft drills or accommodations, please see me, or coordinate between MetalHead and the flight deck duty officer or CPO Sharkey" - and prepared to take it to Deepcrush's office.

Mikey stepped into the turbolift. "Deck nine, holodeck two," he said. As the lift began to move, he spoke to the computer again. "Run unarmed combat program M'karn Pankration on holodeck two - run it at level four."

Before entering for his workout, Mikey touched his comm. badge. "Teaos," he said, "I've got some sensor mods we should discuss."

'Cardinal' sharply bolted upright, as if the very fabric of his essence itself was unravelling.

Waiting for his eyes to accustom themselves to the enforced dark of his quarters, "eliminate the extraneous to focus the necessary," after all, he decided that it would be prudent, to assess the potential of his 'floating family' through a series of tasks and scenarios.

Even with a mind, as unassuming and unconventional as his own, and even with the beaurocracy of his diplomacy career and the dynamics of his vocation, it still would be quite a task, to evaluate and understand, the motives and allegiances of the alien elements of his crew; even this in itself was a dichotomy, innate to 'Cardinal', for despite his heritage; he was after all a quarter Romulan; a product of a less than willing but brief union during a minor skirmish, at times, he found a greater affinity for the humans, yet at others; a sense of distance from the progeny of earth...

Thankfully his 'real family' had expunged, nay, obliterated, any record of his Romulan heritage from most, if not all, databases, and much to 'Cardinals'' relief; the physiological symptoms, were almost none existent, the only real indicator of not being a purebred human, was a slight elvish arch to his ears.

The Helmsman, Andorian, and Tholian, would prove adequate to tax, his abilities and be more than adequate as scapegoats, should anything go awry, in these profound plans of mice and of men.

"I must formerly introduce myself, that is 'Alexis' to the crew, but which poker face, must I employ, ace, heart, diamond or club?'"

After spending a few on-duty hours running diagnostics on the helm and its secondary systems, customizing hir control scheme, and playing solitaire on the computer for a few hours, Blackstar decided to take some downtime in one of the civilian lounges. Shi spotted hir ship's science officer, Teaos and his staff talking about something with Slipstream theory. While not a scientist, Blackstar could usually follow along when talking with one. Shi made a note to investigate what he knew about slipstream propulsion, the same type of propulsion shi was testing when an accident landed hir in this universe.

"Oh well," shi thought, "there's plenty of time to talk with him later." Shi was more cautious in this universe since there were even fewer herms here then back in hir original universe, and many had trouble getting past the fact shi had two genders. Blackstar was hoping that hir Starfleet crewmates were going to be more tolerant, but shi hadn't really had a chance to talk with any of them. Hir staff was really just a few relief crewman who manned the helm when shi was off duty. Although helm did do a lot of work with ops there was no need to talk to him yet.

Blackstar drank a glass of a Klingon drink called blood wine, which had a taste that hir more feral side enjoyed. After seeing no one to talk to other then the scientists Blackstar returned to hir quarters and fell asleep watching an old TV program called Stargate Infinity. Shi was looking forward to the beginning of hir ship's mission, and dreamed of the moves shi planned to show off at the first chance shi got.

With a metallic clank the docking clamps which had held the Daystrom in place for these past months while she was refitted released the ship. A gentle hum from the Impulse engines and thrusts at low power slowly edges the ship away from the docking bay. The Daystrom slowly passed the other ships inside the space docks massive hanger.

She revolved around on the spot to face the hanger doors and slowly increased her speed passing the Galaxy class Mainstream and Steamrunner class Sydney which were currently being serviced. As she passed the last of the ships is dock the hanger doors began opening.

Passing the doors the hull of the newly refurbished Akira class ship glistened blood red as the light of the near by red giant sun bathed the ship and station in its light. Just as the ship was several hundred meters away from the station and preparing to fully engage its impulse engines the station let go a volley of torpedoes which detonated in an arc around the ship before several of the stations phaser banks opened up and flashed around the ship in a bridge of honour. Just as the last beam died down the engines fully engaged and the Daystrom shot away into the dark.

All the senior staff were on duty on the bridge as they had all wanted to be on duty or the launching of their new ship.

The view screen had shown the send off the station had given them. The captain looked over his shoulder at Lieutenant Jon his tactical officer who was smirking at the view screen. He had a feeling his tactical officer may have bribed his counterpart on the station to give them that little send away. Not that he could really blame him, the Lieutenant had been over seeing the refitting of the Daystrom for several months.

"Helm take us to heading two four seven point three full impulse till we clear the stations range then bring us up to warp seven," Captain Fletcher said as he sat himself down in his command chair relishing the fact that he finally had a command of his own.

After watching the sending off display of the Daystrom, Jon realised that Lieutenant Arkenson, tactical officer of the starbase, didn't fire the promised quantum torpedoes after the initial arc. He pushed a couple of buttons on his console, and below the title of 'personal log', entered the words 'owed two quantums by Arkenson'. As he typed this he noticed the Captain give him a quick glance, and hoped that it wasn't of annoyance.

As Jon began remodulating the shields to find the most efficient way of creating a two point six quintillion joule bubble of sub-atomic forces and energies, he noticed one of the shield emitters was out of alignment by 0.02. He'd get one of his engineers onto it, he thought, as suddenly the view screen, showing the red giant, changed the image to stars; they flickered, began vibrating, and then shot out of the view screen's range. Warp speed, he thought, he had missed it.

So this was the bridge crew for the foreseeable future. Captain Fletcher, Commander Rochey, Science Officer Commander Teaos, Operations Officer Lieutenant Mikey, and Helmsman Lieutenant Blackstar. The rest of the senior staff were present, though, to witness the launching of the ship; Security Chief Lieutenant Deepcrush, Chief Engineer Lieutenant Seafort and Chief Medical Officer Doctor Sarin Taal. Alexis Harrison and Jack Ryson were also present, as were a number of ensigns and crewmen, who were relief officers and engineers working at secondary stations.

"Helm, how long until we reach our destination?" said Captain Fletcher, as he mused over his new crew and his new command.

"38 hours at current speed, sir," came the reply from Blackstar, who was pushing buttons on the console, scanning ahead for the quickest path to the Tholian border.

The captain pushed down a button on his console, and the audible sound of a ship wide announcement could be guessed. He stood up and looked around his bridge.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Captain Fletcher. This is, for the most part, a new crew on a new ship. I understand it will take us all a while to settle in and get use to the Daystrom. But I have no doubt that, even after this short while of us being together, everyone on this crew will do their utmost best, and that we will all grow together as good friends. This is a fine crew and a fine ship. I look forward to our future, and I have little doubt that it will be... interesting, at the very least. Captain Fletcher out."

The extra people on the bridge who had come to watch the relaunching of the refitted Akira exited via a turbolift, and took to their stations at various places around the ship.

The captain looked over to his first officer, "You know, I've not even seen my ready room yet," and Commander Rochey nodded in reply. If anyone else had said something similar, he would have been uninterested, but he had always a great respect for his commanding officer.

"You have the bridge, Commander," and with that he walked to his ready room and gave a quick glance back as the doors closed.

Jon thought this a good time to organise a meeting for his department, a briefing on their duties, and on the mission ahead. He looked over his left shoulder to Ensign Jones, the relief officer, who took his place at the tactical station, and Jon entered the turbo lift.

"Deck five, security offices." He had remembered that he still needed to meet the security chief. The turbolift came to a halt; he took a step out, turned to his left, and made his way down a corridor. He entered a room that had a large desk in the middle, with a huge display of the ship that could be changed to show various parts of the ship from different angles as required. This was where security could activate force fields, see where intruders are, send security teams, emergency unlock doors, and control all functions of the brigs and armouries. There were three doors in this room; one was to the corridor, one was a bulky door that had an access panel at the side that was securely locked (the armoury), which only the command division, tactical, and security, had access to, and another one that was the office of the Security chief.

As Jon observed this, Lieutenant Deepcrush himself walked through this door to greet Jon.

"Jonathan Hewer?" Jon nodded, "Deepcrush Culley, Chief of Security."

The two men shook hands, and Deepcrush ushered Jon into his office. They sat down and began picking up various scattered PADDs as they discussed their two departments, and at times going off on tangents - mainly about the Daystrom's capabilities (of which Jon had quite a knowledge), and of her previous missions.


	3. Chapter 3

Commander Rocheineskina, more commonly called 'Rochey' by his new crew, watched the tactical officer, Hewer, leave the bridge

Commander Rocheineskina, more commonly called 'Rochey' by his new crew, watched the tactical officer, Hewer, leave the bridge. He was sure that the officer had something to do with that criminal waste of ammunition moments ago. If he found even the slightest evidence that Hewer had any part in that, the consequences would be severe.

He had spent his first few hours on the ship checking over the different areas of the ship, but had not got around to everywhere he would have liked due to finding a trio of crewmen idling in the corridors. The inefficiency of this crew was appalling; he just hoped the officers knew what they were doing.  
He made a mental note to check up on engineering later on, and to go through the comm. logs to see whether Hewer had had anything to do with that unnecessary weapons fire.

Cardinal, decided that loose tongues weaved golden webs, and being a spider, its' abdomen, bloated with knowledge, delicately tugging each shimmering strand, so as to goad out more light, would be prudent... With that in mind, he decided to debunk at and stay in ten forward, or wherever off duty officers loitered the most... Sleep deprivation was to him, as natural as a breeze blowing; he'd be by the bar, as long as it took, to make the necessary connections…

Seafort stood in the centre of Engineering, taking a moment to take in his new realm. 'Chief Engineer of a starship. Who'd have thought?' With more than a day to go before the Daystrom arrived on station to co-ordinate the search with a Tholian heavy cruiser, he was taking the time to fine-tune the ship's main engines. Already a slight instability had showed up in the port nacelle, and he still had to discuss the phaser power-up problems with Lieutenant Hewer.

As he stood gazing at the warp core, a movement in the corner of his eye caught Seafort's attention - Alexis Harrison, the diplomatic attaché, working a console in the shadows in one corner of the room.

"Can I help you Mr Harrison?"

The diplomat jumped, startled. His hands dashed across the panel. "Chief Engineer. No, I think I can handle this by myself, thank you."

"Can I ask what you were doing then?"

'Cardinal' bristled slightly. "I'm afraid not Chief Engineer. Classified." With that, he strode briskly out of the room.

Lieutenant junior grade Wilberforce, Chief Assistant Engineer came up to Seafort as the Chief Engineer eyed the closing doors thoughtfully. "What was that about boss?"

"I'm not sure Wilbers, but keep a discrete eye on Harrison will you? There's something about him that I can't put my finger on."

Over a prune juice, 'Cardinal' mused:

"I'm sure that my little, display of ineptitude, although perhaps too clumsily acted, would have convinced Seafort to send his perturbed lackey Wilberforce, my direction... Bring those assets to me, I'll do the moulding.''

Blackstar locked in the ship's course on the helm. Not having much to do shi brought up the schematics for a new ship shi had been designing. After looking it over one last time shi called a relief helmsman over and left him in charge of the helm, and downloaded the design to a PADD. Blackstar rang the chime (or the doorbell as shi preferred to call it) and the captain gave hir permission to enter.

"Hello Captain. I was hoping to discuss with you, a proposal for an enhanced scout craft." Shi hands him the PADD with the designs. "I believe that if we pool the resources of several crew members we can construct a ship that'll increase our searching abilities by over sixty pecent."

Captain Fletcher scanned over the design for a minute. "It looks like a sound concept. We'll discuss it at the next staff meeting. Good work Lieutenant Blackstar. Is there anything else?"

"No sir!"

"Then dismissed." The Captain watched as Blackstar left, noticing that hir tail seemed to move in a way he had associated with a happy cat, which was often referred to as 'happy tail' and wondered if that was a trait of hir species or just a coincidence. When a loud "whoopee!" came from the other side of the door he figured it was happy tail after all.

Moving aside to let a rather irritated looking Lieutenant Harrison by, Commander Rochey walked into main engineering. He paused for a moment to look around the room before locating Chief Engineer Seafort and heading towards him. His opinion of this ship was getting lower by the minute, he had been walking down a corridor when a console built into the wall had overloaded. Quite spectacularly.

"Report," he said briskly, once he had reached Seafort. The Chief Engineer saluted before replying.

"Everything seems to be working fine, sir. There is a small instability in the starboard nacelle, but we're working on it now."

"Good." Seafort thought the Tholian had nodded, but he wasn't too sure. "There was a power surge on deck seven a few minutes ago, are you aware of this?"

"No sir. We didn't hear about that before now, I'll get someone to take a look at it momentarily."

"Good. See that you do," the commander replied, then turned and left after taking another look around the room.

'That's one more inspection done,' he thought as he stepped into a turbolift. 'Who next?' He thought for a moment, and then remembered he was going to check the comm. logs to see if anyone had ordered the starbase to fire torpedoes needlessly. 'Now whose job would that be? Ah, yes. The Andorian's. Time to pay him a visit.'

Finishing his bridge shift at the same time as Blackstar, Mikey crowded into the turbolift with him... Her... Damn! He'd have to enlist the help of that so-called diplomat to get the grammar down. There was actually enough room for the two of them, but the closeness of the great furry body made it warm by Andorian standards.

"Blackstar, if I'm not mistaken? My name is M'karn W'trisk, of the clan Trisk, but everyone calls me Mikey. Your record as a pilot precedes you - I was hoping to work on a little project with you."

Blackstar, somewhat overwhelmed by Mikey's bright skin tone and forward manner, looked up at him but said nothing.

"I'd wanted to get your expertise aboard one of our auxiliary craft, but our designers have never encountered a vertebrate with more than four limbs," he explained. "Any ideas?"

"As a matter of fact," replied Blackstar, brightening at the prospect of someone willing to help regardless of her differences from humanoids, "I just received permission from the Captain to start design and construction of an expeditionary craft."

"Great! Meet me in the aft shuttlebay at around 1930, and we can start. By the way, don't be shy around me; my people were a founding people of the Federation, and these pinkies - I mean, humans - still act like they've never seen an Andorian before." Reaching his destination before hir, he reminded hir, "1930 hours!"

Beeping at the security office door, Mikey barely waited to hear an acknowledgement before walking in. "Deepcrush," he said, "I have something I'd forgotten to give you - and Hewer! What did I want to tell you? It'll come to me... Anyway, Deepcrush, I hope I'm not interrupting, but I wanted to give you these." Handing the security chief two PADDS, he said, "These are the duty rosters for the shuttlebay crew. I've noted that you and MetalHead may coordinate any exercises you wish with myself, CPO Sharkey, or the duty flight deck officer. I've instructed everyone in flight deck ops to offer you their full cooperation - the fighters have to stick together, eh?"

Turning to leave, Mikey swung back around. "I know what it was! Hewer," he said, pointing to an antenna, "One of the shield emitters feels a little out of alignment. And let me know if you need any more of the blue juice."

Walking back to the turbolift, he said casually to Deepcrush, "When you see that drone of yours, let him know that I'd love to have him as a sparring partner!"

Blackstar smiled and swaggered a bit as shi walked back to hir quarters. That cute Andorian was interested in working on the shuttle project with hir. After taking a short shower to freshen up Shi decided to look up some articles about Andorian culture, to make sure shi didn't offend him by accident. An interesting species with a long history. Looking at the time shi decided that shi could look at his public files later.

Blackstar put on a clean uniform since shi knew that humans had a nudity taboo (which shi found confusing since they didn't make hir wear anything over hir lower body) and put a belt on that blended in with hir uniform, but allowed hir to carry a number of items. Belts are common attire for taurs that just want some pockets.

Shi kept an eye on the time and got to the shuttlebay a few minutes early. When Mikey showed up Blackstar decided to tease him a little, "You said you'd meet me here at 1930 hours, not 1930 hours and 5 seconds."

"I didn't realize Chakats were so punctual."

"We're not. I'm just teasing." Blackstar gave a grin but it quickly disappeared when shi remembered that many of hir teeth had a more feral look to them, and that some might consider it a threatening gesture. "Since you're the one who invited me why don't you show me what you've got first?"

Jon thanked the Andorian as he left the room, though he did already know about the emitter. He had organised a briefing for the tactical department for 2045 hours, and was busy on a PADD noting down the topics that required discussing - already haven been allowed by Deepcrush to use his office for this task. He had fifty five people under his command, including the fighter pilots, and each one already had a duty. Jon decided to split the department into teams; twenty of these were the fighter pilots (which was much more than required for the amount of fighters they had), under the command of Lieutenant Anker Zionex, who had loved nothing more than having a vessel under his control. He had five specialists on tactical scenarios and enemy capabilities. He had another three primary shift officers, as Hewer was only required to man the tactical station himself in an emergency situation. There were another nine relief officers, who took to tactical when required, and also were stationed near, or at, the emergency bridge. Another fifteen of his subordinates were maintenance officers and tactical system engineers, who could double up as engineering staff, and were commanded by Master Chief Petty Officer Charles Nelson, a veteran tactical officer and engineer of the first Cardassian War, who Hewer had a great respect for. Two of his officers were young Ensigns; Gillieteo, a Betazed, and Smith, both who served multi-purpose roles, normally as sensor analysists, who worked closely with the science department. His final officer was the second in command of the tactical department; Lieutenant Grahame Niles, whom Jon had previously served with on the USS Exeter, and who he had ultimate trust in.

Jon finished writing up on the PADD, mused over the upcoming briefing, and then tapped his communicator.

"Hewer to Nelson, we've got a 0.02 fluctuation on shield emitter seven, and a slight power discharge on the dorsal phaser array during charge up. I'll meet you and Lieutenant Seafort in engineering in twenty minutes to sort it out."

"Understood - damned things going wrong already," came the reply.

Hewer chuckled slightly, Charles was one of the few people who he allowed small discrepancies to disappear with. He had, after all, being in the service far longer than Hewer had been alive. "Hewer out."

Jon walked out of the security office and moved into the turbolift. "Deck twelve, officer's quarters."

Jon walked into his quarters, and began tapping buttons on a purpose built console, so that he could use his own quarters as an office. He relayed the information on the malfunctioning systems to main engineering, picked up a tricorder, and headed back towards the turbolift, passing Blackstar, the helmsman.

"Lieutenant, I understand you oversaw the design and refit of the Daystrom's tactical systems?"

"I did indeed, why do you ask?" replied Jon.

"Mikey and myself are modifying one of the Type Nines into a scout vessel. They're not particularly fast or powerful at the moment, I was hoping you could give us your insight for the weapons and shields?"

"I'd be more than willing to! Can't get enough of designing and implementing - it was a bit of a shame that the Daystrom's refit was quite hands-off; it's just too big to be using your own hammer and anvil. But a shuttlecraft, this will be interesting!"

Blackstar had lost him at the hammer and anvil, but smiled and said "Brilliant! We're meeting at 1930 hours in the aft shuttlebay, to get some initial designs done."

"I'll be there," and he entered the turbolift, a big smile on his face, and tricorder in his hand. "Deck four, main engineering."

Jon entered engineering, and observed Seafort and Nelson talking next to the master systems display. "What first?" said Seafort.

"The Shield emitter is just two decks down from here, might as well see to that."

The three men walked towards a nearby ladder, made their way down a deck, and entered a Jefferies tube. Jon began talking about his plans of the new shuttlecraft, while Seafort and Nelson took every opportunity to degrade their designers, noting that they sat at desks on starbases, and never realised the practicalities, or lack thereof, that shuttles possessed.

"Here it is," said Hewer, and they removed a panel from the wall.

Seafort aimed a tricorder at the offending circuit, frowned, and punched a few buttons. Hewer peered over the engineer's shoulder at the screen.

"It looks like one of the graviton generators has been misaligned, that's what's causing the fluctuation."

Seafort punched another button.

"I'm not so sure - the backup should have kicked in if that were the case. Look at the link between the generator and the emitter array - it's corroded."

Hewer glared at the engineer. "Sir, I went over every tactical system on this ship with a fine toothcomb. I supervised every aspect of the refit. There are no corroded links on this ship."

"Look at the tricorder. It's corroded, machines don't lie."

Hewer bristled, but Nelson intervened. "Is it possible that the link is damaged some other way?"

Seafort shrugged. "Don't see how. Here, hold this light." Rummaging in his toolbox while Nelson aimed the torch steadily at the panel, he removed several instruments, deactivated the shield emitter's power supply, and removed the offending graviton generator. Handing it to Hewer, he continued to root in the depths of the emitter until he found the link.

Holding it up by a clamp, he squinted in disbelief. It was in perfect condition. He peered at the tricorder again. "Must be faulty, pass me yours."

Taking the replacement tricorder from Hewer he examined the readings.

"Same as mine - transfer efficiency is less than fifty percent, but the thing is perfect, not a scratch. I'll replace it - you two take it up to the science lab and analyse it. You've got the specialised equipment and you're better qualified to look at parts of tactical systems."

Taking the link from Seafort, Hewer turned and crawled back down to Jefferies tube with Nelson following while Seafort, with a confused shake of his head set about digging in his toolbox for a replacement.

Ensign Sternson walked into the science labs were Commander Teaos a two other of the science personal were standing round one of the work stations. The display table currently showed the local sector and all the known warp speed anomalies in the area.

"Commander," Sternson said as she stood next to her superior officer, "You were supposed to be on bridge duty over twenty minutes ago," she said as she looked over the map of the sector.

"I'm sure they can survive with out me telling them there is nothing to report for awhile longer," Teaos said with a smirk. His bridge post was hardly a stimulating job and so long as he avoided that damn six legged fiend of an XO he should be fine. Not that he was too worried. Sharing the same rank as him there was not a lot 'Rochey' could do with out the captains say so when it came to him.

"You're willingly getting on the wrong side of a Tholian? And here I was thinking you were smart." One of his enlisted men said earning a round of chuckles from the table. It had taken all or a few hours for them to work out that there commander wasn't a 'By the book' type officer. Something the scientists were all very pleased about.


	4. Chapter 4

All of the senior staff and several other crew members were seated around the long table. Being but a few hours away from there starting location the Captain had called a staff meeting to inform everyone of the current status.

"A Tholian cruiser has agreed to meet with us to chare any information they may have on the area and give us permission to cross into their space hopefully. From that point on we shall work in a system by system pattern scanning for the lost vessels of sign on what has happened to them." The captain stood from his chair and walked over to the wall display which had a map of the sector showing on it.

"As you can see we will be working in the buffer zone between the boarder between the Tholians and ourselves and hopefully in Tholian territory," he said point out there area. "The Sydney will be working the area between stations T-2 to T-7 were several of the ships have gone missing also"

Sitting back down in his chair he looked around at his officers, "During the search for the missing ships Commander Rochey will be our primary source of information on the Tholians we may encounter. Commander Teaos will be responsible for the long range scans and the sensor probes we will be launching. Lieutenants Mikey and Jon will jointly be in charge of launching our shuttle fleet for short range scanning missions. Deepcrush will continue to get our fighting units up to spec. I believe several small faults have already shown themselves which should keep Lieutenant Seafort busy for awhile."

"Now that everyone has their primary roles for now I believe Helmsmen Blackstar has a Project he…Err it has just started," he signalled to Blackstar to take the floor.

"Yes Captain thank you. I have been planning and designing a custom built scout ship for myself for quite some time now. I have the basic designs but would also appreciate any help anyone would be willing to give. Due to the size the features of the ship we will be building it from the ground up and should hopefully have it done with in the month," shi said while swishing her tail backwards in forward.

"Right, well is that everything?" the captain asked looking around the table.

Seeing no one had any major points he dismissed the meeting.

Lieutenant Hewer waited for everyone to leave the room, and the captain noticed this.

"Is there something else, Lieutenant?"

"I didn't think it was worth bringing it up at the briefing, I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Shield emitter seven was showing a zero point zero two percent fluctuation, which is well within Starfleet safety parameters. I decided to go and take a look with Lieutenant Seafort and Chief Nelson. There were no outside signs of it, but there was a fifty percent reduction in transfer efficiency between the generator and the emitter. Lieutenant Seafort replaced the link immediately, and I took it up to the Science labs for analysis. I've had my systems engineers look it at - the link is doing its job just fine; it's being reprogrammed to reduce efficiency. A reduction like this has had two effects; our ventral shields are weakened by thirty eight percent..."

"And?"

"And the generator link could potentially overload, causing a feedback loop to the generator. We would loose all ventral shields, and get a large explosion just two decks away from the warp core."

"How could such a small fluctuation do this?"

"That's the problem, I've never heard of anything like it. I wouldn't have even known to go look at it if I hadn't been specifically analysing each emitter."

"Sabotage?"

"I couldn't say. The link's internal workings are similar to those used on the Intrepid class ships, it's not impossible that someone simply installed the wrong one. But I checked all systems, everything was scoured!"

"Mr Hewer, do not worry, it's understandable that everyone makes a mistake or misses something. Keep the link in case we need it. Is there anything else?"

Jon was annoyed with himself for missing something, but refrained from making any give away.

"No sir."

Captain Fletcher made a nodding gesture, giving his leave for Jon to leave. He had forgotten about the meeting regarding the shuttle at 1930 hours, as he was too busy trying to get some answers. He didn't miss things, he simply didn't. "Forget it," he said to himself. And that's just what he did.

"Seafort to Hewer," said Seafort across his communicator.

"Go ahead," replied Hewer.

"Please meet me on deck ten, section two, bring a type eight phase discriminator, there's a problem in the dorsal phaser relay."

"Aye sir."

Jon made his way there, and entered the Jefferies tube. Seafort nodded in acknowledgement and Jon passed him the phase discriminator. He tapped a few buttons on the discriminator and put it next to the relay. His tricorder began beeping, and Seafort smiled.

"Sorted, just a small imbalance in the EPS-phaser relay conversion rate. What'd the captain say?"

"Nothing really, I suppose someone just installed the wrong link."

They crawled out of the Jefferies tube. "Well Lieutenant, I'm off duty now. Fancy a drink in the mess hall?"

"Yes sir!" said Hewer, just then realising his shift had ended about three hours ago, and relieved that the first full day onboard the Daystrom had come and gone. They'd be at the Tholian border and meeting with their ship in just seven hours. He'd have a drink then get some sleep while he can.

Finally calling it a night after discussing the scout ship design with Blackstar - it wasn't a meeting, because Jon hadn't shown - Mikey decided to finally get the education about talking to the Chakat which he had intended. He couldn't get a read on the big quadruped; he/she seemed to enjoy Mikey's company, but that could simply be due to Andorians' own intricate marriage/procreation practices, and resulting tolerance of such.

Entering the turbolift, Mikey instructed it to take him to senior officers' quarters, then tapped his comm. badge. "Ensign McKenzie? Mikey, from ops. If you are available, and Seafort doesn't mind, I'd like to have your input on a project we're working on. If you can, meet me tomorrow at 1930 in the aft shuttlebay."

Arriving at the 'diplomat's' quarters, Mikey paused a second. That 'Cardinal' was a strange duck for a human. He seemed to be a man of passions - almost as much as an Andorian - but who forced himself to keep them under wraps. Not quite like one of those daisy-eating Vulcans...

Beeping at the door, Mikey found himself waiting more than few seconds before hearing an almost-too-cheery, "Enter!" from Cardinal.

The diplomat was standing behind his desk, in the process of slamming down his console screen. He smiled extremely broadly, and said, "Mikey! What can I do for you?"

Mikey's antennae rotated; the human's heart was going a mile a minute. "Err, I wanted to give you this by way of introduction" - Mikey produced a tall, narrow bottle of Andorian ale – "and maybe ask to trade it for a favour. I've been working with the Chakat helm officer, and I would feel more comfortable if you could school me in proper forms of address."

"Well," laughed Cardinal, a model of amiability, "you don't have to bribe me for that! How about over breakfast - say 0700 at the officers' mess?"

"Thank you. I look forward to it..." Mikey sensed that this conversation was now over, whether he wanted or not. Nodding, he backed himself out of the room.

"Mikey?" his comm. badge buzzed with the gravelly voice of Ensign Grr'lek, currently at the bridge ops station. The Caitian explained, "Sorry to bother you, sir, but I'm getting... Something... On the new subspace vector sweeps you had installed. I didn't want to send it to science until you had seen it, sir."

"On my way," replied Mikey, "And let science know that we might need some sensor analysis..."

Commander Teaos and Ensign Sternson made their way to the Bridge, technically Teaos was supposed to be their anyway but he had asked one of the ops crewmen to keep an eye on his station. Not like anything was likely to happen for the moment.

Stepping into the turbo lift the Ensign asked for the bridge.

"So what are these readings that they want us to have a look at?" Teaos asked as the flashing light speed by signalling there accent.

"I'm not to sure, something about the subspace sensors, the ops officer just asked for us to look at something for them, Lieutenant Mikey is already on his way," Sternson said as the turbo lift doors opened to let in two engineering crewmen who signalled they were heading to deck two engineering.

"Subspace sensors? That sounds like something the science department should deal with," Teaos said as he looked over at the ensign.

"Yes they are commander but the Lieutenant apparently has been doing some modifications and sweeps with them," she said as the doors opened to the bridge, Lieutenant Mikey was already there standing by the on duty ops officer next to the Science display panel.

"Hello Lieutenant, I hear you have found something with my sensors," Teaos said putting an emphasis on their rank difference and that this was his station. He might not be one for protocol most of the time but that didn't mean he took too kindly with people messing about with his department with out informing him.

'Cardinal' deftly swept along the corridors, towards the Andorian's vacant quarters, moving more akin in its subtlety and guile to a shadowy serpent than a man; a product of years of intensive study at prodigious, yet highly classified special operations schools.

Within the blinking of an eye, 'Cardinal', entered the quarters, his dextrous hands overcoming any obstacle to his entry and any indicator to his presence, upon the Andorian's clan kumara-bureau, he placed an encrypted electronic codex; which read; 'In the name of the merciful and beneficent ancestors of your clan W'trisk , and of that sacred vow, orally transmitted through the last two generations, confined only to the male members of your lineage, the hydra is free, seek out the piper to tame it, unto its casket.'

This reiteration of an oath, held sacred, and its implications, were simple, an in viable favour needed to be repaid, for the honour of clan W'trisk, there was danger involved and that the diplomat, needed assistance at any cost, for to renege upon the oath, was a sin far worse than dishonour or death.

With that, 'Alexis' with a wry smile, at the thought of the Andorian, realising that the universe, had just gotten smaller, also dropped a note: 'Dear Mikey, your friend Alexis cordially informs you, to address the Chakat, using non-neutral gender terms, to refer to yourself in relation to your esteemed parentage, to readily apply and receive hugs but also to know the limits of appropriate behaviour and not to misinterpret Chakats' cordiality for anything sordid.'

With that 'Cardinal' slithered out of the quarters' and 'Alexis' stuttering and clumsily trundled through the corridor, back into his quarters and makeshift office.

Anyone stumbling upon the diplomat would be hit by a wave of tedium, at this vanilla pen pusher...

Mikey stood at attention, somewhat surprised by the rank-pulling shown by this otherwise lackadaisical-seeming officer. "Begging the Commander's pardon, sir," replied Mikey, "But I did attempt to contact you, if you remember, at approximately 1300 hours the day before our departure to discuss the matter, sir. I merely delayed transferring the new functions to the science station while awaiting your preference of interface displays, sir. Grr'lek, go with Ensign Sternson and shift all sensor functionality to science."

Teaos cocked an eye at the ops officer. "Yes, anyway..."

"The matter is this, sir. What I added was a function to detect subspace vectors and delta-v; we used on my last boat, and I thought you could make use of it here. What we found just now, sir, seems to be a subspace object, matching our velocity but changing relative position randomly, but..."

"But WHAT, Lieutenant?"

"I did not approach Commander Rochey or Captain Fletcher, sir, because according to all standard scans of the area where the body in question appears, there is NOTHING THERE, sir. I have already dispatched the pertinent sensor logs to Lieutenant Seafort to determine if a hardware error is to blame, and if not... If not I thought your analysis should come into play before a report is issued, sir."

Somewhat mollified by the Andorian's deference, Teaos said, "Rightly done, Lieutenant. Sternson - transfer all this to the lab. I can work more easily there. Thank you, Lieutenant."

"Aye, sir," said Mikey, and then to the brown-furred Caitian, "Good pick-up, Grr'lek. Knock off when you're done with the interface transfer - have Smith pick up the remainder of your shift."

Striding back to his quarters, Mikey intended to improvise a little on his flabbjellah, maybe a blues in a minor key, to calm down before bed - he was due to meet Alexis at 0700. When he entered his quarters, however, all intentions and appointments fled from his mind. Looking at the ciphered and closed electronic book, he finally broke the code with a simple voice authorization. He read it; then read it again, recognizing an incantation his great-grandfather had only heard of...

Reading the note on the PADD which dropped from the codex, Mikey gaped. "How in the three frozen hells could he have known about the oath? And what in the name of The Great Hearth could he want from ME?"


	5. Chapter 5

Captain's Log, Stardate 57881

Captain's Log, Stardate 57881.1

"We have arrived at the designated co-ordinates on Tholian border, and are awaiting the arrivial of our escort. Our first day on the Daystrom has not been uneventful, with various anomolies taking a prominant stance around the ship; mainly hardware faults, admittedly. It was not unexpected after such a major refit, and I have absolute trust that my new crew have the ability to deal with the situation. The operations and science departments have already started long range scans for any clues as to the disappearances of the ships, however from this distance, it is unlikely to wield any results. For that, we need access to Tholian space.

End Log."

Jon had woken up a half hour earlier, and was sat at his tactical station on the bridge, consistently scanning the vicinity for any tactical threat. Every now and again he'd get a reading on Lieutenant Mikey's modified subspace sensors, but he couldn't make heads nor tails of it, and he was told to ignore them until the diagnostics on the previously acquired logs were complete. Ensign Smith had been commandeered by Commander Teaos and Lieutenant Mikey, he thought to himself, however as Jon didn't urgently need him at the moment, he laughed it off.

"Captain, I am picking up a Tholian cruiser on an intercept course at high warp, it will arrive in two hours," said Lieutenant Mikey as he maintained a constant sensor lock on the vessel. He had spent hours wondering over what he saw in his quarters, but thought it best to leave it until later.

"Commander Teaos to the bridge," said Captain Fletcher into the intercom. The Commander was in the science department, continuing diagnostics on the sensor logs. He had, at least, worked out one thing; Mikey's modified sensors worked perfectly, but having never worked with such a calibration, he had little more success making sense of them than Hewer.

"Captain, it is standard procedure for this type of cruiser to approach any alien vessel with weapons and shields online. They will not fire, but it may be a good idea to return the gesture," said Commander Rochey to the captain.

"Agreed," replied the Captain, "Yellow alert. Raise shields and ready phasers Lieutenant. Leave the torpedos and make no weapons lock."

Jon nodded his head and did as ordered. Commander Teaos exited the turbolift and stepped onto the bridge.

Blackstar was busy pacing back and forth in hir quarters trying to decide how shi should explain to the captain to never refer to hir as an it without risking a court marshal. Blackstar tried writing it out on a PADD but shi had a hard time phrasing it. Shi decided to talk to him face to face in the morning, and hopefuly he wouldn't trigger any of the pranks shi had set up for him, without thinking. Or making sure shi could stop them. Not being able to sleep shi decided to get something done.

Blackstar pulled out a device that many would look like a standard tricorder with a dirty yellow paint job and activated it. "Sally, please pull up the plans for the Betas on my viewscreen."

"Working. So did you have a nice day? Meet anyone new? Any potential mates?" A torpedo shaped device appeared on the screen.

"You're awefully nosey for an AI. And I did Meet a handsom Andorian called Mikey who is helping me build a new scout shuttle. And don't you dare ask about his genitals."

"That's Okay, I already hacked his medical files. He has my okay."

"Sally! I told you no hacking without permission. Now lets see what we can find on Tholian Web emitters."

It wasn't until Sally reminded hir of the time that Blackstar stopped working on the Betas and got ready for hir shift. When Blackstar reached the bridge shi was only half surprised when the captain asked hir into his ready room. "now I'm not sure why you're mad but rigging my sonic shower to make my hair stand on end is not how a Starfleet officer handles it. Nor do they put a whoopie cushion on the Captains chair or put a vibrater on my doorstep."

"I'll take credit for the first two, but the last one sounds like someone's interested in you. And I'm mad because you called me an it in front of the senior staff. That suggests genderless, and possible feral-ness. My species might resemble animals, but we're physically superior to animals and humans and I'm proud of that, and what I've managed to accomplish."

The captain leaned back and said, "i didn't realize it was that important to you. Now I'm going to let you off with double-shifts the rest of the week, since I can't prove anything, as long as you make a full report to security about what you did to bypass them. And Next time talk to me about this type of stuff. Now whe're both due on the bridge. Dismissed."

Blackstar was relived that the captain didn't come down too hard. Shi grabbed a coffee from the replicater and was about halfway though it when shi realized it was prune juice. Shi smiled and laughed, "i suppose turnabout is fair play. Nice to know the captain can take a joke."

Hir ears perked up as the yellow alert sounded. Shi dashed to hir position at the helm ready for anything.

Commander Teaos and three of his science staff were going over the sensor readings from the sub space sweeps. He had sent Ensign Sternson to man the consol on the bridge to report on any addition readings and do the usually duty now that they were in Yellow alert and about to encounter and Tholian vessel and hopefully pass into Tholian space. Two more of his staff were checking the sensors themselves. With readings this unusual he didn't put it pass that bloody Andorian to up screwed up his sensors… Subspace sensors were not toys to be played with at will. So far everything seemed in order but he had ordered a complete diagnostic which would take several more hours to fill.

With such limited facilities and staff he was using every one of his staff to go over the recordings. They were a nice break from the usual mapping and scanning he did but he preferred to work at his own pace.

As far as they could tell so far there was defiantly something there. Ever time the anomaly showed up on his sensors it was of the same makeup. Unless it was a sensor malfunction which despite what he had though seemed unlikely there was something out there that was following the ship or being dragged behind it. His initial thought had been some sort of subspace anomaly which had been caught up in the warp slipstream but that seemed unlikely as it kept disappearing.

The voice of the on duty operations officer rang out through the ship "All Senior staff report to the Bridge"

Informing his crew to continue working with out him the Commander made his way to the bridge.

Stepping off the Turbo lift he made his way to the science station having a brief whispered conversation with Sternson before dismissing her to take his place back at the lab. Long range sensors showed the Tholian cruiser to be only thirty minutes away.

Captain Fletcher turned to Mikey who had taken his post at Opps "Can we get them on screen yet Lieutenant?"

"Any moment now Captain"

"Good, lets just hope they grant us access to their space" He said as the view screen changed from the usual image of stars to that of the sleek red Tholian Cruiser.

'Alexis'' poured onto the bridge, clutching a mass of padds, like a man who'd never had the use of his own hands before, and obviously spent too long, orally dictating notes to staff or machines...

Although to his credit, 'Alexis' was wearing the awkward, rigidly starched, formal diplomacy-wear, usually reserved for meeting dignitaries of the highest calibre or bloodline, also noted by Fletcher, to a wry grin, was that most of the padds, were infact inactive, and appeared to be hastily replicated shells that perfectly mimiced the appearance of a padd...

Clearly the excessive dress and scholarly column of padds, would impress the Tholian Heavy Cruiser commander, appealling to the Tholians' academic intrigue; and to the societally repressed, but still simmering below the husk of apathy... vainity.  
"Bring me, my latte!" 'Alexis' boomed, then softened, "then we can play, discussing treaty, talk about crabgrass, whatever it takes."

"Mr. Harrison," said Mikey after the diplomat had received his beverage, his tone all friendliness, "since you have expressed such an interest in Andorian history, perhaps you could join me in the holodeck about 15 minutes after the contact mission is complete... I have something to show you."

His smile disappearing, Mikey returned his attention to his station. "Captain, I have the Starfleet Intel report up now. Would you like it in your ready room?" he asked, eyeing the Tholian first officer.

"No, no, let's hear it," said the captain. "Perhaps Commander Rochey will be able to fill in the blanks..."

"Aye, sir. Tholian web capability, augmented by a multi-vector capability with each segment and auxiliary craft serving as relays. Two isokinetic cannons, high yield but believed relatively ineffective against shields; four disruptor emitters of medium yield. Hull of an unusual crystalline substance, expected to be fairly resistant to impact. Power systems and additional weaponry unclear; further intel or scans may be indicated." With this last, Mikey glanced pointedly at Rochey, then Teaos.

When Captain Fletcher turned his attention back to the viewscreen, Mikey turned to the chief engineer at the wall console behind him. "Lieutenant Seafort, were you able to make anything out of the sensor logs I sent? I'd bet my left grell'nor that there was no malfunction, but I'd like proof." Turning back to the first officer's position, he said, "Commander?"

"You're intelligence seems adequate," grated the Tholian. As far as additional weapons, I'm afraid I can't say."

Fletcher turned to look at Rochey and appeared to be trying to select one from a dozen replies, but at that moment a quiet alarm beeped on Mikey's console. "Captain, we are being hailed. Onscreen?"

The view screen flickered to an image if the crystalline upper body of a Tholian flanked by two other standing at rigid attention. The entire bridge was bathed in a soft red haze which made it difficult to see any details beyond the Tholian Captain.

"I am Captain Kraytar of the Tholian assembly's battle Cruiser Drekma" The grating voice of the Tholians rang out through the Bridge.

Captain Fletcher was standing at attention flanked on his right by Commander Rochey and on his left by Ambassador Harrison "I am Captain Fletcher of the Federation starship Daystrom, we are here as agreed to request permission to pass into your space to look for our missing vessels. I believe the relevant details were in the transmission we sent"

"We received your transmission. You have been granted limited access to our space to conduct your search, you are to stay with in a hundred and fifty light-year distance of the boarder, any breach of this limit will be dealt with with extreme prejudice" Kraytar said before immediately closing down transmission.

"The Tholian vessel is departing at high warp captain" Hewer said from his station. He had been standing ready to fire ever since the Tholian vessel came in range. He was not comfortable doing negations with shields up and weapons armed.

"I'm not picking up any other vessels on long range scans captain" Teaos said from his station were he continued to scroll through the scans of the area.

"Anything else on scans?" asked as he sat back down indicating everyone should stand down from the yellow alert.

"Nothing… relevant, sir" Teaos said as he once again picked up a bleep on the scanners.

Briefing room

"We have been granted access into Tholian space up to a hundred and fifty light-years into Tholian space, while not ideal it is about as good as we could have hoped for" Fletcher said from his seat at the head of the table.

"I think it would be best if the get this done as soon as possible, I have no intention of over staying our welcome here. The Daystrom will be conducting long range scans along this course" He said indicating a line that ran parallel to the boarder. We will be launching our shuttle fleet to conduct scans of the local planetary systems to search for signs of our missing craft"

"Lieutenant Deepcrush I want you to take oversee the shuttle fleet during its search, we'll be launching four of our fighters to do short range patrols on the area for protection. Due to their limited range they will only be able to do fourteen hour patrols before returning to ship to relaunch" Deepcrush nodded making a note on his PADD.

"Commander Teaos your to oversee the long range scans and launch any sensor probes you feel are necessary. Lieutenant Mikey can assist in the sensor sweeps to free up some of your time. Seafort I think you'll have your hands full keeping out shuttle fleet moving. I want them out of here as soon as possible and for our fighters to rotated out"

"The rest of you have your assigned duties. Dismissed"

'Alexis' looked fairly ruffled; and 'Cardinal' knew that the Tholian Commander and Vessel, were not those designated to meet with the Daystrom at these coordinates, and for the tholians to be mildly unpunctual was a sin unto itself, nevermind spontaneously rotating vessels and officers, without first a full beauocratic wedge of administrative paperwork being submitted to the Daystrom...

"Forgive me, Commander Teaos, but Mikey and i have a prior yet brief appointment to fulfill, one of a personal-cultural nature, i would request his company, and your leave, for the briefest of conversations."

Having briefly stopped in his quarters for a change of clothes and some odds and ends, Mikey had the holodeck already running. Harrison stepped in to a confusion of smoke, sparks, and black-clad Andorians - some hard at work, some dead with greivous injuries. It was the heavily-damaged bridge of an ancient Kumari-class Andorian cruiser.

"Computer, freeze program." Mikey remained moving forward amid the other now-frozen Andorians, dressed likewise in balck leather, complete with baldric. "Welcome, Mr. Harrison," he smiled, "to my recreation of the Battle of Weytahn, in which my great-great-grandfather established the standing of clan Trisk. You see, as far as anyone will know, we ARE discussing Andorian history. Regarding my people's lore, did you know that the Lernaean oath, if issued under questionable cause, may be challenged by the ushaan? Or that, while we may look slender and fragile to some, our dense structure and semi-chitinous skin make us considerably stronger and tougher than humans? Add to that the fact that we train from childhood in lethal combat styles..."

"Phenomenal," replied Harrison sarcastically. "I imagine you're wondering -"

Mikey's smile took on a predatory cast. "Here's a tidbit," he interrupted. "Before we helped establish the Federation, Andorian weapons such as this" - Mikey brandished the Andorian Imperial Guard pistol which had hung at his hip - "possessed no 'stun' setting at all."

"What is the point of all this?" asked Harrison with some bravado, although Mikey could detect the human's temperature rise and heart rate increase.

Mikey's smile disappeared as he drew close to Harrison, his sidearm still unholstered. "Just this: you are no simple diplomat. I want to know who you are; and while you have no claim over me - at least none that I couldn't void by legally killing you in the ushaan - you have, er, intrigued me. What would you ask of me? And if is detrimental to this ship, this crew, or the Federation, why shouldn't I kill you anyway?

Mikey tapped his comm badge. "Lt. Deepcrush," he said, "I'm afraid my appointment has ran over slightly. I will join you in the forward shuttlebay to brief my flight crews and assign escort chiefs in one hour."

"There, now," said Mikey to Harrison, still carelessly waving the pistol, "we have some time to talk."

'Cardinal'' forced a smile at the andorian, true his heartrate had shot up, uncontrollably so, despite the years of meditation and focus, but this was less through terror than through the exilaration, of finding a worthy ally, and not; a mindless automaton, preprogrammed with federation ettiquete and eshelons of orthodoxy disguised as 'thinking outside the box'...of course, 'Cardinals' ' romulan ancestory didn't help his composure either.

"Mikey, as you deign to be called, in your effort to ease assimilation with those here, so alien to yourself...before we begin our soiree, i would to contritely apologise that the holodeck facilities on the Oryx, are unable to totally mimic, your established program on the Daystrom, which you so quaintly set up, with that fine air of andorian nostalgia, as your antennae might detect, we've been having issues with humidity and giving the illusion of scent on our holodecks recently...'"

"We will reappear seamlessly, back onto your holodeck in approximately 5minutes, until then, we are in my domain, and my andorian friend who took your place on the Daystrom holodeck, will for all intensive purposes, behave and appear exactly as you might.'"

"'I am recinding any claim or grasp,that the oath may have upon you, your clan has been restored to full honour and prestige, since your arrival here, the weight of shame has been lifted, the purportrators which brought such disgrace to your household, unfortunately... met with a horrific transporter accident, but managed to confess their misdemeanours before... passing... eventually."

"I represent an schism in starfleet intelligence, a useful splinter, dedicated to preserving the integrity of the federation and its persons, including all of those upon the Daystrom."

"We, both, together, as a team, of equals, need total transparency, and as such i'm willing to answer any questions as you might conceive, another day."

"We are now back abroad the Daystrom, according to my padd, and i would ask that you exit the holodeck amicably... before you go; immerse yourself in the crew, report to me, any individuals, who you deem exceptional of ability and committed to the federation."

'"Now depart."


End file.
